Career News 24/7: The Cynical Girl: You just need one profile on LinkedIn. Yours.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

The Cynical Girl: You just need one profile on LinkedIn. Yours.

You just need one profile on LinkedIn. Yours.

Posted: 09 Sep 2013 06:45 AM PDT

I spend time with recruiters and HR professionals who have two profiles on LinkedIn. One for their personal network and one for the times when they reach out to candidates during the sourcing, screening, recruiting and hiring process.

“Laurie, I don’t want to personally connect with thousands of strangers. My job makes me do it.”

Although that sounds dumb to most people, I get it. The internet is weird. But if you compare the two profiles side-by-side, neither are truly stellar and both are in need of some work.

You can use these social networking platforms any way you choose, but it’s exhausting to have a dual identity. Trust me. I have two personae: one for my real life and one for my writing. If I had a full-time job and kids, I couldn’t do it.

In fact, I can barely do it.

If I had to manage two LinkedIn accounts + two Facebook accounts + multiple twitter accounts + a job + a boss + candidates + clients + meetings + real work + kids + a spouse + my family responsibilities, I would never get anything done.

Jennifer McClure and I offer online classes on optimizing your social media presence and the next one is in December. You get 4.5 HRCI recertification credits for it. But I don’t care if you sign up for our classes. Take a look at our free resource on LinkedIn.

Optimize your profile. Make your life easier. Get the heck off the internet and into the real world where you can make a real difference.

That’s what we want for you.